How to Make a Building Out of Sugar Cubes

For people who wished to build edible houses and don't have the same penchant for gingerbread--as most do, especially around Christmas--you have options. The most logical step after boards of ginger bread, which resemble sheets of plywood, is sugar cubes--resembling bricks. The process of making a sugar cube house is an easy one. The only difference between the methods of making the house is what you use for mortar.

Things You'll Need

Sugar Cubes

Cardboard

Cream of Tartar

Eggs

Confectioners' sugar

Cake frosting

Spatula

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Mix up your mortar by combining 1 egg white, a pinch of cream of tartar, and 1 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar. Combine the sugar into the mortar a quarter of a cup at a time. This mortar, because of the egg being raw, is inedible. If you wish to eventually eat your building, use cake frosting in your building.

Choose what building you want to model your building after. You will have to create a scale building if you wish it to exactly resemble the original. Measure the dimensions of the original building or find out the dimensions by conducting research. Translate the dimensions into measurements that can be translated into sugar cube form. For example, each sugar cube represents one cubic foot of area for the building.

Draw on the cardboard what you want the perimeter of the building to look like--keep in mind the width of a sugar cube. Apply your mortar to the sides of the cubes that will contact adjacent sugar cube sides with a metal spatula. Clean the spatula if the mortar gets caked on there. Layer the sugar cubes on top of the cubes beneath them, keeping the integrity of the building's perimeter intact. Repeat building up your sugar cube building one layer at a time; applying the mortar to the sugar cubes as if you were putting mortar on bricks and building a real house.

If you are building a flat topped building, build the flat roof before you install it. Make sure it is the appropriate size and will cover the hole you left for the roof. Assemble it on a flat surface and give it time to dry before installing. Build a central support beam out of sugar cubes to support the middle of your flat roof. Building a flat roof is not recommended because it is a fragile design; if that is the design you want though, you will have to support the roof in the middle. If you wish to install a slanted roof, this will be a difficult endeavor. Sand down your sugar cubes on a diagonal, forming a slant. Use them to form a large triangle with a base as wide as the width of your building. Since, when sanding down the sugar cube you form a 45 degree angle, the base of your triangle will dictate the height. Use Peppermint bark or gingerbread for your roofing--or any other material you may want to use.

Tips & Warnings

If you do not have the time or gumption to make the mortar, non-toxic craft glue or caulk would work as well.

You are only limited in your design by your own imagination.

If something appears to be breaking or in need of support, create a sugar cube reinforcement beam. Real houses need them, and sugar cube houses are no exceptions.